Animal Instinct
by Stossle
Summary: Natasha is an Australian ecologist, but something strange is happening in the bush and she can’t work it out on her own. She is going to need help. She is going to need a Doctor. A new adventure for the 11th Doctor Who. Set post End of Time.
1. Chapter 1

A woman walked through the bush, looking up at the tree canopy and down at her feet at the variety of plants growing there. Every so often she would stop to pick a piece of a shrub, examine it and write something on her clipboard. She wore a green chambray tee-shirt, with a small blue symbol just above the left breast, and blue jeans smeared with dirt. She had a blue backpack and she held a red clipboard and a small PDA. In her ears were small headphone buds, her footsteps moved in time to the music. A phone rang and she pulled the buds out of her ears, pulled a mobile phone out of her pocket and answered it.

"Hello, Natasha Greene speaking" she said. After a pause "Oh hi Michelle... Yep still got a couple of hours to go on this site then I'll be heading off. You should see the flowers, they've got Umbrella wattle and Swainson peas. It's just lovely." She stoped and pulled her backpack off and sat down on a log. "Sorry Michelle, it's mean of me, making you jealous. I know you'd like to be out in the field... Ok then I'll ring you when I leave... Bye."

Natasha put the phone back in her pocket. She started to write something on her clipboard but paused. She looked up at the trees. With her music and then the phone call she hadn't noticed. The bush was totally silent. It was never silent. There was always birds, or insects and of course the flies. But nothing. It wasn't windy or too hot. There should be some noise. Where were the birds? She scanned the branches of the trees but saw no sign of life. She picked up her backpack. Looking all around her she walked quickly towards a white ute, just visible through the trees. She shivered. This was creepy, and the one thing you didn't want was creepy when you were out on your own, in the middle of some block of bush, with no one within cooee or two.

And then she saw what she was looking for, a bird perched on a low branch of a large Black Box tree. She quickly identified the large black bird. A White-winged Chough. That was odd, they normally flew in large groups making one hell of a noise. And here was this one just sitting there looking at her, its head titled to the side.

"What's up with you?" she asked the bird, "Not feeling too talkative today huh?" She laughed at her silent conversation and then shuddered again. In large groups squawking and carrying on these birds were creepy. One silent bird just looking at her like that was much more ominous. She tried to shake off the feeling and resumed her walk towards the ute, keeping her eye on the silent bird as she walked past.

The silence was suddenly shattered by the strangest noise she had ever heard. A whooshing noise, but mechanical, kind of like a motor-bike being started under water, but, not really. A motor-bike, being started under water, in a wind storm, with a loose electrical wire? That didn't make sense. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. In a spot about fifty metres in front of her she could see movement. It was hazy at first like a smudge glasses, or an out of focus picture, but as the noise increased a blue shape sharpened itself into... A blue telephone box?? No a police box. It said so. A band of clear white writing across the top of the box said simply 'Police Box'.

_Was that there before? Am I seeing things? _She asked herself. _No, that's new_. To her amazement a door on the box opened and out stepped a thin man in a leather jacket, followed closely but a small red haired woman wearing a tunic top and skinny jeans.

_Totally inappropriate clothing for the bush_ was the slightly hysterical thought to go through Natasha's head.

The man looked at her and said one word "Run".

So she did, away from the box and back towards the strange bird.

"No" he yelled. As he did the bird reared up and flew towards her, black wings tipped with white flapping wildly. And behind that bird was a swarm of black and white flashing wings. There were hundreds of them, a mass of claws, feathers and beaks. Natasha screamed in terror, did another turn and ran back towards the man, the woman and the blue box.


	2. Chapter 2

"It..." stammered Natasha

"Is bigger on the inside." said the man.

"What a line." Natasha laughed nervously and looked around the large chamber she had found herself in. Odd coral shaped columns embraced a tall central pillar surrounded by a circular bench filled with odd knobs, handles, buttons and computer monitors. It looked like someone had been playing space ship with their mum's kitchen utensils. Outside birds could be heard, squawking and shrieking and beating against the outside of the box.

Natasha started to shake with the reaction to it all. After being alone in the peaceful bush, being attacked by birds and then finding herself inside a large room, in a small box was disconcerting to say the least. The noise of the birds banging against the door did little to settle her nerves. It was all a little too Alfred Hitchcock meets Star Trek. In a small trembling voice she said "This is all a bit too strange. Can you please tell me what the hell is going on?"

"No idea." The man bounded over to her and then lead her to a seat next to the circular bench. "I've been having parsec variances in the time vortex for days now. And just then, great sparks coming from the Tardis console. And the sound of whistling and chirping. We got this big shudder, open the doors and the Tardis is in a forest. And the birds. That's weird isn't it? Where are we?" The man looked at a monitor. "Australia, 2010. That's different." He barely drew breath as he bounded around the 'console' pushing buttons and pulling levers. "Not the time, you understand. Seem to end up in the early 21st century a lot lately, and that is odd in itself, but Australia? Don't spend much time in the colonies. No reason not to. Just don't. Another thing, my sonic screw driver has been playing up, but that could be unrelated. What do you think?"

Natasha was rarely caught for something to say, but she was struggling for some semblance of comprehension in what he had just said. Most of the words made sense but the context was lost on her. She scrambled her mind back through what he said. "Why does the date surprise you?" It was the smallest of questions to ask, but of everything he said, the comment about spending time in the 21st century struck her the most.

He quirked his head to one side, clearly not expecting that question, "Time travellers us. This is Amy", he indicated the girl "and I'm The Doctor."

"I'm Natasha. Nice to meet you." She heard herself saying.

"And nice to meet you Natasha" said The Doctor.

Amy smiled and handed her a cup of tea. "This will make it all seem a little less overwhelming."

Natasha looked from one to the other, taking in their accents. "Are you English?"

"Amy is. I'm from Galifray." Natasha looked at her tea and took a long sip.


	3. Chapter 3

Natasha thought she had it all straight. The Doctor was a Timelord who travelled through time and space in his Tardis. The Tardis looked like a Police Public Call Box, which made extremely good use of its interior space, but was actually a space ship slash time machine. Amy was an English girl travelling with the doctor as his companion. Sounded kinky but it seemed like it was just a platonic travel buddy. Which made sense (_sense what sense?_) because The Doctor was actually an alien from some place called Galifray.

Alien? He didn't look like an Alien. He looked like some skinny boy not that long out of high school. He didn't talk like a boy just out of high school. He had this magnetism about him. Despite the absurdity of what he said Natasha just believed him. It was completely out of her experience but she found herself accepting what he said. She looked up from her empty tea mug. "I'm going to have to ring work and tell them about the birds."

"What's your work?" Amy asked.

"I'm an ecologist. I work for the Department of Sustainability and Environment. If there is some disease or toxin affecting the birds I have to let them know. Hopefully it isn't too late to contain it. White-winged Choughs, they're the birds that attacked, don't swoop like that. I mean they always make a lot of noise and can be quite frightening, but they not strong flyers."

"You're department can't help. This isn't some normal earth based disease. Not with the Tardis acting like this. There is something not completely terrestrial about this." Natasha accepted this. She seemed to be accepting a lot, but there was something about this 'Doctor'. She just trusted him.

"What's causing it?" asked Amy.

"No idea." The Doctor turned to Natasha. "Where are we?"

"Middle of nowhere really. Northern part of Victoria. About 250 kilometres north of Melbourne. This block of bush is on a farm, Bill and Sheryl Slaters' farm. Gosh, I should check on them, I hope they are ok."

"All right then. Lead on Natasha, we've got farmers to be rescued from alien crazed birds." Natasha was sure that The Doctor was finding this fun. On second thoughts, she wasn't sure that perhaps she was too.

"Is it safe to go out?" Amy asked.

"They've stoped beating against the door." said The Doctor. Sure enough the sounds had ceased.

"They could be waiting." said Natasha.

"Only one way to find out." said Amy and opened the door. They stepped cautiously out of the Tardis. Dead bodies of birds lay scattered on the ground, their bodies crushed and blood matting in their black feathers. Amy screwed her face in horror and disgust. "They smashed themselves to death trying to attack us."

"Poor things. We need to check on Bill and Sheryl now. We can take my ute." said Natasha stepping cautiously over the bodies. "You know what's weird, I mean all of this is weird, but I always worried that birds would attack like that. I've always been a bit scared of them, but I knew they wouldn't. When it happened it really freaked me out."

The Doctor tilted his head and gave her an odd look. "You're scared of birds? You're an ecologist, doesn't that sort of go against the job description?"

Natasha laughed. "I suppose it does. I like birds, they are beautiful to look at and they have amazing habits, and they are so interesting and important, ecologically speaking, but..."

"Yes" said The Doctor.

"Well, the thing about birds is." Natasha ran her hand through her hair. "The thing is, they're everywhere. If you're walking in the bush you hear so many birds but you can't see them easily. And even in the city, there is so many of them. I always feel like they are kind of watching us. They are everywhere. And the thing about birds is that although they are so beautiful and sound so lovely, the bits they are made up of isn't very nice. All beaks, legs and dirty feathers. And if you hold them they're too light, they're bones are made of nothing. They just feel wrong. I know it's silly. I had a budgie when I was little and I used to have nightmares about it. I mean most of my work is about trying to protect them and it's really important but there is always that little thing in the back of my mind that gives me the creeps about them."

"Interesting." was all The Doctor said as they got into the ute.

They could hear screams and gun shots even before the farm house came into view through the trees.


	4. Chapter 4

Amy held on tightly in the back of the ute. Natasha negotiated the rough dirt track with a confidence and speed that exceeded her skill. Even The Doctor looked a little grey. Amy though it served him right for some of those trips in the Tardis. Time travel, and apparently driving in the country side, was tough on the joints. They pulled up to the house, tires grinding on gravel and dust misting the air.

As one they jumped out of the ute and ran towards the sound of loud and colourful obscenities. Through an old cast iron gate hanging on a low cyclone fence they found a woman standing on a garden table. Silver hair framed a face wild with fear. She was holding a rifle pointed towards the ground. Amy looked at the long grass and gave what she thought was a rather undignified squeal. A silent army of snakes slithered through the grass towards the woman. The woman took aim and fired at the ground. Her aim was true and a long black snake erupted from the grass.

"Take that you bastard." she yelled. The tough words belied the terror in her voice.

A few snakes had reached the base of the table and were hissing and striking in a frenzy to reach the woman. One had started to curl up a table leg. With a broad accent and impressive imagination the woman didn't for a moment stop swearing. She reloaded the rifle and shot at the climbing snake. It twisted in the air and lay still.

"Sheryl." Natasha called.

"Bloody hell Tash, help me. That was my last shot." Sheryl started to beat at the climbing snakes with her rifle.

Amy noticed The Doctor making his way slowly through the grass towards Sheryl. Every few steps he would step gingerly over a gliding snake. Amy's recoiled at the sight of her Doctor amongst those slippery creatures. "Doctor, no."

"It's ok Amy, they aren't interested in me."

"The birds attacked us."

"No the birds were after Natasha, we were just near by. This is ok. I think."

In a quite voice Natasha spoke. "Doctor, most of those snakes are really venomous. Australia has some of the most dangerous snakes in the world. There are definitely brown and black snakes there and I think I saw a tiger snake. We are a long way from the hospital. If you get bitten I don't know if we can get you antivenin in time."

The Doctor had reached the table. For all his bravado his face glistened with sweat. "Sheryl, I'm The Doctor and I need you to listen to me." Amy saw, as she always did, Sheryl responding to the authority in The Doctor's voice.

"Are you crazy?" Most of the snakes were at the table now, sliding over each other in a twisted mass. Some had managed to gain hold and were curling up the table legs.

"Only a bit" The Doctor responded to Sheryl's query. "I want you to jump over the snakes to me and then I want you to run towards the house."

Sheryl repeated herself in a small voice. "Are you crazy?"

"For your sake I hope I'm just crazy enough."

A snake had made it to the table top. As it reared back to strike Sheryl hit it violently with the but of her rifle. Two more snakes were sliding towards her feet. Sheryl let out an expletive and jumped towards The Doctor.

He caught her awkwardly but both managed to maintain their footing. The Doctor grabbed Sheryl's hand and together they started to run. The snakes responded immediately and started to follow.

"Girls run!" Amy and Natasha needed no prompting and ran towards the house.


End file.
